Power Poles

In the gusty predawn hours of Oct. 21, 2007, portions of three wooden utility poles in Malibu Canyon snapped and fell to the ground. Sparks from live electrical wires ignited dry brush, creating an inferno that raced down the canyon into the Civic Center area, destroying 14 structures and 36 vehicles.

A van struck a power pole Wednesday and caused an electrical outage that affected 1,500 Southern California Edison customers, police said. About 12:30 p.m., a 31-year-old man driving a moving van veered into a power pole at Brookhurst Street and Orangethorpe Avenue, causing the outage, authorities said. The driver was not injured, nor was he cited, Police Investigator Lorraine Jones said.

You don't need welcome signs to locate the boundary between the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard. All you need to do is look up. Eastward from La Brea Avenue, the Los Angeles view is cluttered with utility poles and wires for electricity, telephone and cable television service. Westward from La Brea, the West Hollywood sky is suddenly, and blissfully, clear. The reason is that Southern California Edison Co.

The vigilante patrol started on a cautionary note. No, Steve Wayne wasn't perched on the hood of a moving car like he sometimes is--one hand clutching the grille and the other clawing at utility poles with a garden rake. Not today. Wayne was setting out to harvest the latest crop of illegal signs from power poles and traffic signals along Sunset Boulevard by hand. "Goodbye. Don't get arrested," ordered Nancy Wayne, his wife of 35 years. "Be careful. Don't forget your medication . . .

That drumming in the woods along the Salmon River is the pileated woodpecker drilling holes in wooden power poles. It could also be the sound of ratepayers' coins rattling away to pay for the damage. The 18-inch-tall woodpecker knocks huge holes in the poles for its nests, undermining the supports for power lines that serve central Idaho mountain towns, including Sunbeam and Stanley. "We've had woodpecker problems in the past, but nothing of this magnitude," said Frank Corrales Jr.

Rockwell International has agreed to pull the plug on high-voltage power lines connected to a nearby Southern California Edison plant that sparked protests from nearby residents. Concerns over the safety of the 66,000-volt lines that sizzle and arc atop 80-foot-high towers led residents to collect more than 300 signatures calling for removal of the lines.

Overhead utility lines along Katella, La Palma and Lincoln avenues will be placed underground in the latest phase of a five-year program to beautify the city and increase safety. The City Council has unanimously approved the creation of "underground districts" for the three streets. This action puts Pacific Bell and Multivision Cable on notice that they must convert their utility lines at their own expense. The cost of placing city-owned utility lines underground is paid through electric rates.

Some county officials said Friday they want to close a loophole that exempted the power line that caused the Sesnon fire from inspection or brush clearance rules. The move comes a day after The Times reported that the electricity distribution line that sparked the huge blaze was not covered under the state's strict inspection and brush clearance rules because it was not owned by an electric utility and was on private land.

An 80-year-old Montclair woman who was critically injured last month when a car driven by her husband slammed into a power pole dangling from a crane has died, her son said Friday. Betty Jean Deyo-Ridley and her husband, Joel Ridley, were returning home Dec. 6 after visiting a friend who was helping plan their honeymoon when they crashed in Upland. Ridley, 81, who was driving, died at the scene. Deyo-Ridley suffered skull fractures and cranial bleeding.

Ronnie Kennedy, a utility supervisor from Louisiana, watched proudly as his crew reconnected a severed power line in this frost-crusted city. As thick slabs of ice fell around them, the men in white hardhats kept working. Within minutes, juice was restored to another house. The painstaking process of repairing ice-coated lines and replacing power poles that had snapped under the strain of frozen rain would need to be repeated hundreds of times.